Two-thirds of B.C. residents say foreign ownership tax won’t cool real estate market: poll

Two-thirds of British Columbians don’t believe the new foreign ownership tax introduced by the B.C. government in July will help to cool down the red-hot real estate market in the province, according to a new poll.

On July 25, B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong announced foreign nationals who buy real estate in Metro Vancouver would pay an additional property transfer tax of 15 per cent. The additional tax means that a home selling for $2 million will amount to an additional $300,000 for a foreign buyer.

But a new poll conducted by Insights West suggests British Columbians have their doubts when it comes to the effectiveness of the tax.

Sixty-eight per cent say the new tax will be unsuccessful in “making it easier for British Columbians to afford a home,” a premise that Premier Christy Clark used to justify the tax.

“We are making sure that British Columbians get first crack and best crack at buying new homes and existing homes when they come on the market,” said Clark in July.

At the same time, the poll suggests 76 per cent of residents support the tax, while 17 per cent oppose it and seven per cent are undecided.

During the July announcement, de Jong said the money from the additional tax would be used to fund housing, rental and support programs.

The poll shows almost three-in-four British Columbians (73 per cent) expressed little or no confidence when asked about the provincial government’s pledge to reinvest the revenue from the tax.

While many experts say it’s too early to tell if the new tax is having any substantial effect on the real estate market in Metro Vancouver, the numbers released by the British Columbia Real Estate Association on Tuesday suggest home sales in Vancouver have slowed.

New numbers released by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver earlier this month also show residential property sales totalled 2,489 in August 2016, a decline of 26 per cent compared to the 3,362 sales in August 2015. That is also 10.2 per cent fewer than sales in August, 2014 and one per cent fewer than the sales in August, 2013.

The results of the Insights West poll are based on an online study conducted from Aug. 19 to Aug. 23, 2016, among a representative sample of 827 adults in British Columbia, with a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points.

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